Kristen Thies believes in the power of inspiration just as Michelangelo did when he wrote, “The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.” She explains her lifetime love of art this way: “Its like a golden thread of knowledge—fine art connects us to the great artists of past ages whose works have long endured.”

The secret to Kristen’s remarkable success as a gallery owner, graphic designer, publisher, executive producer, and publicist is that conviction—Michelangelo’s certainty—that there are higher standards by which we can measure our own creativity. Leading artists today believe we are on the threshold of a great rebirth of art. That rebirth must begin by rediscovering and renewing the forgotten standards of the past—such as Plato’s ancient trinity of beauty, truth, and goodness.

One of the eternal verities, as true today as it was in Michelangelo’s day, is that works of art have the power to speak directly to the human soul, and thereby to enrich and uplift. The paintings by the three artists to whom, Kristen has long dedicated her incredible instincts and amazing skills all express that verity: paintings by Richard Schmid, Nancy Guzik and the late Timothy R. Thies are never objects—always conduits of that power—which then touch the viewer’s soul.

No one becomes as influential and profoundly supportive of true greatness by accident. So the fascinating question about Kristen Thies is: What made her that way? And the answer is: dreams did. Rather, her unshakable belief in life dreams and in dreams coming true, is what made her so truly remarkable.

And rare. It takes all kinds of people to make the Art World go 'round, and it sometimes seems that this strange and wonderful little world’s spin is controlled by men and women motivated by the base emotions, including greed, envy, jealousy, deception, and nonsense. But it also takes the rarest kind of individual in art, and this is the woman or man who truly believes in the higher emotions, like beauty, honesty, altruism, and truth. It was this kind of rare individual, the Kristen kind of person, whom Shakespeare was describing when he had Polonius say in Hamlet, “This above all: to thine ownself be true, /And it must follow, as the night the day, /Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

Kristen Thies, true to herself and to all others, and empowered by actual, deep belief in the power and possibility of life dreams, is like a great painting’s canvas: behind the scene, easily overlooked or forgotten—but the sure and solid foundation upon which the best things in the Art World—and in life—are built.